Lamoille: Lush valley provided rest stop for travelers

Emigrants crossing the vast Nevada desert found a refuge in Lamoille Valley where their livestock could feed on lush grasses and drink from the many creeks found there.

The Humboldt Trail had been all but denuded of any grasses by the animals of previous wagon trains.

But a short trip off the main trail brought them to a valley that is about 15 miles long and four miles wide and fed by many creeks including Lamoille Creek. That creek which empties into the east fork of the Humboldt River gets its water from Lamoille Lakes high above in the Ruby Mountains.

Thomas Waterman and John Walker, friends from Austin, were the first white men to settle in the area. The year was 1865. The area reminded Waterman of his home in Vermont so he named it Lamoille after the county from where he hailed.

Walker later built the Cottonwood Hotel, a store, saloon and blacksmith shop and by 1869 a settlement began to grow. First known as Walker Station or the Crossroads, the town soon adopted the name of the valley in which it is situated.

The village, located about 18 miles southeast of present day Elko, grew rapidly but when the first elections were held there were only 25 registered voters.

During those early days, Walker served as deputy sheriff. But since there was no jail in the new town, Walker was forced to transport his prisoners all the way to Austin, many, many miles to the southwest. As the crow flies it is almost 120 miles between the two towns and more by horseback.

Walker left the town he founded in 1873 moving to nearby Elko for a couple of years before taking up ranching. He died in 1897.

Waterman moved to Elko where he was elected county clerk. From there he moved to the Owyhee area then to Tombstone, Ariz., where he died in 1881.

School was first held in an existing building in town. In 1872 a new schoolhouse was constructed. It remained in use until 1898 when Charles Nobel bought it and moved it to his ranch. The school was then moved to a store until another new school was built in 1913. Fire destroyed that school in 1919 and classes were moved to the Hankins-Bellinger Saloon. It was another four years before yet another schoolhouse was built and that one served the community until 1961 when the school district was abandoned.

A local rancher, Thomas Cahill, donated land atop a mall hill for a cemetery saying there wasn’t much there for a cow to eat anyway. Today a fence surrounds the final resting places to keep the cattle away.

The town continued to thrive as did the ranches and farms in the valley surrounding the town. While frost was a constant threat, the swarms of cricket that plagued other areas of the state, surprisingly left Lamoille alone.

Lamoille population rose to more than 200 in 1880 but dropped to 150 some 20 years later.

The Little Church of the Crossroads, Lamoille’s first church opened in 1905 and still in use today. Previously church services were infrequent and held in the school.

Lamoille was a peaceful community but not without its share of band men including thieves to made off with $800 from the Lamoille Mercantile Company in 1915. Choosing to use nitroglycerin to blow the safe, they were ingenious in heir use of sacks of potatoes to muffle the noise of the explosion. However they weren’t smart enough t realize their haul might have been much larger if they hadn’t also destroyed most of the post offices boxes and their contents. The crooks were never apprehended. The store closed in 1920 and fire destroyed the building in 1940.

In 1912, a 15,000-foot wood flume was constructed in Lamoille canyon. Its purpose was to supply water to run a power plant and first both Lamoille and Elko with electrical power. The flume was replaced in 1944 and in 1956 steel pipes replaced the wood flume. But the power supply could not keep up with the demand and when the power plant burned in 1971 it was not rebuilt.

Lamoille was built very close to the mouth of Lamoille Canyon, one of the most beautiful places in the state. Ablaze with colorful flowers in the Spring, the green of summer and the vibrant colors of autumn, the canyon is a favorite among visitors.